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Essay on how macbeth character changes
Essay on how macbeth character changes
Essay on how macbeth character changes
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Mental deterioration is when the mind breaks down and can cause forgetfulness, hallucination, memory lapses and destructive thoughts, In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, when Macbeth murders King Duncan, his mental state starts to deteriorate as he seeks help from inanimate objects and experiences vivid hallucinations. Blood symbolism emphasizes Macbeth’s mental deterioration as he seeks help from lifeless objects. Macbeth asks inanimate objects instead of people to help him to remove his guilt because he worries people will perceive him as insane. The guilt Macbeth feels when he plans Banquo’s murder causes him to have realistic hallucinations and he is unable to differentiate between reality and falseness around him. Although Macbeth …show more content…
is initially perceived as a confident character, his mental deterioration is evident through the use of blood and animal symbolism. Mental disorders can cause people to speak to lifeless objects to provide satisfaction or comfort.
Macbeth’s mental deterioration is highlighted through the use of blood symbolism because he calls on the natural forces to help eliminate his guilt. When Macbeth kills King Duncan he says to himself, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?” but Macbeth quickly realizes the greatness of the murder and says, “No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ Making the green one red.” (II. ii. 57-60). Shakespeare uses metaphors describe how evident Macbeth’s guilt is. The metaphor reveals that Macbeth wonders if his mind will become clean from guilt. Shakespeare uses imagery to highlight how great Macbeth’s guilt is. Since oceans are vast, Macbeth’s question proves how much guilt he has because he needs a lot of water to attempt to rinse his deed. Shakespeare also uses diction to emphasize how evident Macbeth’s guilt is. As Macbeth experienced, mental deterioration can cause a change in personality. Shakespeare chooses the colours red and green because they are opposite of each other on the colour wheel just like Macbeth’s personality before his knowledge of the prophecy and after the murder of King
Duncan. Before the murder, Macbeth’s mind was like the colour green because green symbolizes balance and harmony but after he murders King Duncan state his mental state is like the colour red. Red symbolizes anger, action, aggression and is an attention-getting colour. The word choices foreshadow Macbeth’s mental deterioration will be evident to others and ultimately lead to his downfall. Furthermore, when Macbeth puts his plan to murder Banquo into action he calls to the night sky: “And with thy bloody and invisible hand/ Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond/ Which keeps me pale.” (III. ii. 49-51). Shakespeare uses a metaphor to show how Macbeth tries to hide his guilt so he can murder a close friend. Macbeth’s mental deterioration is proven when he calls upon inanimate object to cover his guilt. Shakespeare also uses blood imagery to prove how Macbeth’s guilt haunts him. The guilt has taken all of his blood that provides his body with energy and life; he calls to the night sky to eliminate the guilt so he is able to live a fearless life. Mental disorders may also prevent people from confronting their fears. Macbeth’s mental deterioration is evident because the animal symbolism Macbeth uses to justify his fear are metaphorical to the guilt and pain he is carrying. As proof, when Macbeth expresses his frustration with Banquo’s suspicion of his crime, he cries, “Oh, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” (III.ii. 38). Shakespeare uses diction to highlight Macbeth’s mental state. Macbeth uses the word ‘scorpion’ to describe his pain. The word choice proves Macbeth’s mental deterioration because mental deterioration is often described as the softening of the brain and scorpion bites cause the skin to be soft. Diction is also present again when Macbeth describes his mind is ‘full of scorpions’. The word choice of the word ‘full’ reveals how much his mental state is significantly deteriorating. Consequently, when the ghost of Banquo appears for the second time, he challenges it: “Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,/ The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Hyrcan tiger;/ Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves/ Shall never tremble.” (III. iv.100-103). Shakespeare uses imagery to emphasize how much guilt Macbeth feels. Banquo’s ghost symbolizes Macbeth’s guilt. Since animals like the Hyrcan tiger are ferocious , this reveals how substantial Macbeth’s guilt is as he rather face vicious animals than the guilt of the murder of Banquo. The diction also foreshadows the downfall of Macbeth if he cannot discard his guilt. Blood and animal symbolism highlights Macbeth’s mental deterioration even though he is initially recognized as a self-possessed character. When Macbeth calls to the natural forces to rid him of his guilt, Shakespeare's use blood imagery to emphasize his urgency to dispose of his guilt. In addition, Shakespeare also uses animal imagery to create metaphors for Macbeth’s increasing guilt and pain.
William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is intense and horrifying, with Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, planning to kill the king so that Macbeth can take his position. Lady Macbeth is the master mind behind all of this. She is in his ear telling him what to do and how to do it. Under all of this pressure from his wife, Macbeth starts to go insane. In the play, Macbeth shows symptoms of bipolar disorder due to his lack of sleep, agitation, and activeness.
After a long and hard battle, the Sergeant says to King Duncan, “For brave Macbeth,-well he deserves that name,- disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution , like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage till he fac’d the slave;” (1.2.16) . This quote shows that Macbeth is viewed as a valiant soldier and a capable leader. However, it does not take long for the real Macbeth to be revealed- a blindly ambitious man, easily manipulated by the prospect of a higher status. His quest for power is what drives his insanity, and after having been deemed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s ambition can immediately be seen. In a soliloquy, Macbeth says, “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings; my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastica, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.140). Macbeth has just gained more power, and his immediate thought is of how to gain an even higher status as king. He imagines how to kill Duncan, and then is troubled by his thoughts, telling himself it is wrong. This inner struggle between Macbeth’s ambition and his hesitation to kill Duncan is the first sure sign of his mental deterioration. Although Macbeth does kill Duncan, he questions whether or not he should to do so, which is far different from how Macbeth feels about murder later in the play. Macbeth becomes king, and this power leads
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both show signs of what would today be diagnosed as symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as "a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought, and conduct." There are three major symptoms of the disorder; not being able to distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality, incoherent conversations, and withdrawal physically and emotionally. The most common and most well known symptom of schizophrenia is when people cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not. Schizophrenics often suffer from delusions and hallucinations. A delusion is a false belief or idea and a hallucination is seeing, hearing, or sensing something that is not really there. Some people diagnosed with the illness may speak with disjointed conversations. They often utter vague statements that are strung together in an incoherent way. Lastly, some schizophrenics withdraw emotionally, for example, their outlook on life is deadened and they show little or no warmth, and also physically, such as their movements become jerky and robot-like.
After the first murder scene, when Macbeth stabs King Duncan in his sleep, he encounters a great deal of guilt towards the murder. This is shown by a quote from Macbeth, "With all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in carnadine, making the green one red", at this point in the play, blood is resembled mostly by guilt. What Macbeth is really saying is that not even the entire ocean could wash his hands clean of blood from this dirty deed he had committed. He feels that what he had done was so wrong and shameful there is not a way in the world to hide it, the ocean is an excellent way to portray this. After the discovery of Duncan’s murder in the third scene, Macbeth exaggerates the king’s wounds," His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood, and gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature..." Macbeth most likely said this to drive away any thought of him being the murderer. The word "golden" resembles the King’s blood, referring to his social status not only as a King, but as a well liked member of society. The word “blood,” produces a dreadful description of the king’s murder which aids the audience in picturing this horrific murder scene.
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, has a lot on his hands as the king of Scotland… especially blood. In fact, blood imagery and the use of violence were large parts of Shakespeare’s style of writing. By examining the blood imagery in Macbeth, one can determine that the loss of blood of others symbolizes illness and Macbeth’s health, mentally and physically declining. This presents the idea that the more he kills, the closer he comes to the ultimate illness, death.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play. Macbeth’s rise to the throne was brought about by the same external forces that ensure his downfall.
Shakespeare employs the powerful symbol of blood to augment the tragic nature of Macbeth, while dually adding dramatic effect to the play. Blood’s recurring symbolism throughout the play constantly reminds the audience of the Macbeth’s irreconcilable guilt. Blood’s symbolism in the murder of Duncan transforms an act of treachery into a ghastly betrayal. The symbolic appearance of blood throughout the intermediate parts of the play maintains the depth of the Macbeth’s unforgiveable guilt. The use of blood as a symbol in the conclusion of the play asserts the perpetuity of the Macbeth’s guilt. Shakespeare’s inclusion of blood as a major symbol in Macbeth creates a compelling tragedy in which the audience is able to comprehend the magnitude of the Macbeth’s irreconcilable guilt.
Mental illness is a serious societal problem today, and has been for a long time. People who have a mental illness often end up hurting other people mentally and physically. When someone has a mental illness, they might also end up hurting themselves or cause suffering for themselves. Also, it is sometimes difficult for them to understand things clearly, and they might be unsure of things in their life. All of these problems are shown in a person who is mentally ill. Macbeth hears his prophecy from three witches which starts his mental illness, along with Lady Macbeth pressuring him to kill the king. After Macbeth kills the king, things start to get out of hand; Macbeth gets over ambitious and wants to kill more people, whatever it takes. Lady Macbeth asks for her womanhood to be taken so that she will not feel guilty, but ends up feeling more guilty than ever. Subsequently, she kills herself to escape the guilt, and causes her husband great pain. These tragic examples and many others show that mental illness is a societal issue, and it is shown throughout the story of Macbeth.
A disturbed character is presented in Macbeth and the poems Havisham and Medusa, more specifically it is the female characters who shown to be disturbed. The disturbed character is presented by Shakespeare in his portrayal of the blood thirsty and ambitious Lady Macbeth. In Carol Ann Duffy's poetry, she shows that the disturbed mind of a female character is still a thrilling topic for readers in her poems ‘Havisham’ and ‘Medusa’.
In this act blood imagery is used to symbolize the ongoing feeling of guilt. “What hands are here…they pluck out mine eyes. With all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand…making the green one red” (2, 2, 60-64). The blood seen on Macbeth’s hands strongly represents Macbeth’s inability to remove the murder from his conscious, and “all great Neptune’s Ocean wash this blood clean from my hands” (2, 2, 60-64), Symbolizes the large amount of guilt that Macbeth feels after he kills Duncan. Finally the change in blood color from green to red symbolizes that the guilt Macbeth feels will always remain there to haunt him as the horrific crime is present in his mind. Blood imagery in this act rather than representing heroism represents the large amount of guilt. Guilt that is
There are many things you could say about Macbeth but being sane was most definitely not one of them. He became a killing machine in such a short amount of time because he was never meant to be a leader. Macbeth listened to everyone else around him instead of trusting himself in decision making. He was set with many psychological issues. Not only did he commit the many murders that he did, but he was faced with issues afterwards and so did his wife. In the beginning he seems to be loyal to his king as his number one soldier until he meets the three “weird sisters”. After meeting the three sisters I would say everything changed.
After killing King Duncan to inherit the throne, Macbeth experiences feelings of extreme guilt for his actions, stating, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incardine,” (2.2.77-79). Macbeth compares his guilt to blood, suggesting that his guilt for committing this action is eternal and all consuming, as is the figurative eternal blood capable of turning the ocean red. This implies that interfering with the natural chain of being will result in all consuming feelings of remorse for committing such an egregious deed. Later in the play, Macbeth kills Banquo to ensure his position as king will remain uninterrupted, again interfering with fate and the natural chain of being. As a result of this crime, Macbeth becomes fearful for his safety, proclaiming, “It will have blood; they say blood will have blood,” (3.4.151). This statement means that committing murder will result in the murderer being killed as reciprocation. The threat of being killed as punishment for killing is amplified because of the importance of Macbeth’s victims and their position on the natural chain of being. The use of blood imagery draws attention to and highlights the importance of this line by correlating Macbeth’s disturbing thoughts to a universally
This is caused by his nervousness of going through the plan, and pleasing his wife that he begins to see things. Afterwards Macbeth then assassinates his best friend, Banquo and begins seeing his ghost. Partly because of his connection with that person, he felt guilt and sorrow. This again is another symptom of mental illness occurring towards a person.
Macbeth now begins to realize the severity of his crime, and the consequences that he will face. For instance, when Macbeth tries to wash Duncan's ‘blood’ off his hands, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No; this hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red." (2.2 71-75 Shakespeare) This passage illustrates the act of murder has completely changed how the audience portrays Macbeth's character. No longer does the blood symbolize an image of ambition and heroism; it now symbolizes guilt, remorse, and an entry into the gates of hell from which no one can return. The gates of hell which he cannot return from symbolize that once the murder of Duncan has been committed he cannot undo his actions. This murder of Duncan shows the true colours of Macbeth and how he can go and kill his good friend just because he was pressured by his Lady Macbeth. In this passage Macbeth is saying that not even all the water in the ocean will wash the blood off his hands, he is beginning to realize the affects of his actions, and that he has done something truly evil. Like her husband, the once ambitious Lady Macbeth comes to realizes the significance of involving herself in the murder of Duncan, and the severe consequences it will bring. Lady Macbeth is being haunted by nightmares, hallucinations’, she also sleepwalks through her corridor
During Shakespeare's time people believed in the Great Chain of Being, in which people were ranked in social positions and that God put them where they are. They believed that if it was broken, bad things would happen. Within this context, the Great Chain of Being was broken in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. The main character, Macbeth, is to blame for the tragedies that happened during the story because it was his choice and his mental illness that pushed him to do what he did.